“Every moment is the seed of the future, the fruit of the past, and the flowering of the present.”
~Celine Cardineau
The life cycle of a star, the life cycle of a plant… What do these teach us about the natural process of growth and creativity?
In this collection, plant-spirits emerge from the nebulous cosmos as archetypal forms in angelic proportion… like stars illuminating the potential growth in every moment.
Fusing ecology, herbology, and astrophotography, these surreal oil paintings represent the flow of Life as a creative cycle.
Stars, planets and moons form naturally from immense nebulas, which are—in themselves—the scattered remnants of stars and systems past.
Spherical bodies emerge from disordered matter through movement, their clumsy dance gradually spiralling into harmonic order, into predictable cycles and seasons. This is how life and consciousness develop: in cycles.
Complex systems of Being arise and evolve from the amorphous sea of fertile stardust, continually blown by the winds of change — knowing that one day, all that arises will again subside into the primordial sea of pristine wisdom.
Stardust to stardust, in an ever unfolding story.
In this Cosmic Garden, where microcosm and macrocosm transcend Time as one Grand Design…
The cycle offers the viewer a chance for reflection and renewed intention.
What is blooming in your present moment?
What seeds are you planting for the future?
What fruits have your past decisions produced?
And where do you find your roots, in a world of constant change and motion?
SEEDS OF PASSION ~ Inspired by the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) and the peculiar vine that gives the star-like passionflower and the spherical passionfruit.
POPPYSEED PORTAL ~ Inspired by the poppyseed pod and its skeleton - a natural architecture that serves as both cage and gateway, for the delicate poppy to be reborn. While both pod and seed are ancient medicinals, their poetic form is what opens the portal.
LONGEVITY ~ Inspired by the noble Sentry (or Century) Plant, which lives up to 30 years in the desert. At the end of its life, the succulent sends a flowering stalk 30 feet skyward, and after this spectacular display, the whole plant dies. Such noble sentries surrounded me as I hiked deep in the Grand Canyon, reminding me that some displays of beauty are once-in-a-lifetime.
DREAM SEEDS ~ The seeds within the cavernous womb of the pumpkin, are sleeping soul-dreams, awaiting the light of awakening.
CITRINE HEALING ~ Inspired by the power of citrus to banish the winter cold... Spheres of solar sweetness collide against crystalline ice in a surreal electrical storm, delicious as lemon sorbet.
TRUST FALLING ~ One of the most precious skills of any seed is knowing how to fall. Seeds fall in different ways. Twin maple seeds reflect each other like wings, but can only fly if broken apart into singular maple-keys. The star anis seed falls from a fragrant eight-spoked wheel. Seeds teach you to trust the fall to reveal your unique design.
DRAGON FLOWER, DRAGON SEEDS Set against the inky Chinese Dragon Nebula (NGC 6559), this amber-pink painting features a Snapdragon flower and the seedpod it becomes (a bouquet of upside-down skulls). The dragon is a timeless symbol of the energy that dances through the cycle of life and death.
BLOSSOMING COURAGE ~ Beautiful borage (flower of courage) is set against the M42 nebula, a star nursery located in the Sword of Orion.
BELLADONNA BLACK ~ In the shadows of the garden, Nightshade grows. Like a black hole born from a dying star's supernova, Lady Nightshade's poison-dark berries emerge from a five-petalled star. Therein are the mysteries of death, the medicine within poison, the light in the dark.
POISE ~ This world is but a jumping off point. Accompanied by the yellow blossoms of the water mosaic plant, a cosmic frog is somewhere in-between, poised mysteriously on a celestial sphere (an imaginal map mirroring the stars as seen from within).
BEADED PILLARS ~ Inspired by the Pillars of Creation (three towers of stardust in the Eagle Nebula), as well as the plant spirit of Corn, this turquoise painting pays homage to the native wisdom woven through the land of North America. {"For what is corn, after all, but light transformed by relationship?" ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, on the Mayan creation story}
PLAYFULNESS ~ Giant prickly pineapples emerge from electric vortexes containing strange galaxies. The Spiral of Life is encoded in the pineapple's shell, and extends its creative reach into the pure imaginal. From this spiral essence, playfulness emerges as an aspect of the Divine.
DANDELION ~ The praying mantis looks to the stars and sees the future reflected back in spheres.